How would you do this problem?

[Deeko]

This was on my final I just took...overall I got every question but this one, and it left me completely lost....any ideas?

Your pupil has a diameter of 6mm. A car's headlights are 1.3m apart, and emitting light with a wavelength of 500nm. What is the maximum distance that the two lights could be resolved?

The question referred to single-slit defraction, but I have no idea how. I made up a formula to answer it....D = a/wavelength * d and came up with something like 900M 😛

 

[Deeko]

haha...no takers eh?

 

[GreatBarracuda]

Sorry... don't remember anything from first-physics...well only the electrical stuff cuz that's my major.

 

[melly]

plane.flies.over.my.head.

swoooooooooosh 😉

 

[Mo0o]

ill be able to tell you by teh end of this summer 🙂

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

well, I'm not sure how to solve this specific problem because I didn't take your class but generally you can, in a best case scenario resolve objects that are a half (or was it double?) of the wavelength. Something tells me you should be looking at distance between lights as projected on your pupil. IE, solve for the distance at which the lights are less than 250 nm apart or something along those lines. That's the best I could come up with off the top of my head.